Romania has four teams in the Europa League. But not for long!

Has a 1-0 lead to defend in Zurich, against Grasshoppers, and comes after an excellent away win during the weekend, against another title contender, FC Vaslui. Everything’s going great for Steaua, morale is high, but GZ missed in the first leg a few golden opportunities to score and proved capable to upset Dumitrescu’s men, who are yet to be tested by a serious opponent. The hosts are missing two key players, while the Bucharest side cannot field captain Banel Nicolita, who, given his form, wasn’t a threat, and powerful centre-forward Pantelis Kapetanos. The Greek has been replaced by Romeo Surdu, who struck twice and offered a wonderful assist in the last game, being the type of quick forward more useful in away games rather than at home. Definitely the team with the biggest chances to make it in the group stage.

Unirea Urziceni

Coach Levy’s gone, top keeper Arlauskis has been sold to Rubin Kazan, all the key players, like Bilasco, Galamaz or Apostol, have already agreed to switch clubs, with several others currently involved in negotiations. In spite of all this, the remaining staff speak of a last attempt to produce a miracle, from a bunch of footballers that have impressed with their performances in the past couple of years. An open game is expected, there’s no reason to go a different way, but to come back from 1-4 seems impossible.

FC Vaslui

The rumors that Lopez Caro will be sacked have been killed by the club’s owner, who stated that he will offer the Spaniard the chance to build a squad and earn trophies in the three years deal agreed this summer, so the pressure moved on the players. Rodolfo Bodipo was released as a signal for all the others, but in my opinion it all still depends on Caro’s ability to burn stages and find a winning formula. Vaslui’s defense is a mess even when there are two defensive midfielders deployed in front of the back four, while in attack Wesley missed several chances, although pairing him up with the massive Pouga will definitely produce results sooner or later. I expect Vaslui to go down tonight, in front of a hot crowd and an organized team, with a win to nil definitely on the cards.

FC Timisoara

FC Timisoara will meet a lot of Man City’s reserves, which isn’t a good thing at all, as we’ll probably see some selfish, but very determined players on the pitch, trying to prove themselves. Petrovic admitted that attacking City would be crazy, although sitting back when you’re already one goal doesn’t seem a very smart thing to do. In this case, I cannot see Timisoara having chances to score until the game has been put beyond any doubt.

Radu Baicu

• 10 years of continuous work in scouting, for top clubs and companies;
• Worked for clubs like Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Hannover 96, monitorring the Romanian market;
• Worked for Birmingham based company 'The Scouting Network' (www.tsn.co.uk) as a football scout;
• Worked for Zurich based company Boutique Football as a scouting network coordinator;
• International scout for Young Boys Bern for 2 years, covering Eastern European football.
• Currently working as an international scout for a top French club, covering Eastern European football.